Director, Corporate Strategy

Here at Scotts Miracle-Gro there is no such thing as a typical day. Our culture is constantly energized by new and exciting growth opportunities and at a rapid pace. Below are details on an open job. If the role interests you and you would like to be considered we encourage you to apply!

As the Director of Corporate Strategy & AI Intelligence, you will serve as "The Scout" for the Strategic Acceleration Business Unit. You will lead the charge in researching, piloting, and leveraging emerging AI tools and Large Language Models (LLMs) to uncover new growth opportunities, map competitive intelligence, and provide automated workflow insights. Your primary mandate is to define whether the company should "Partner, Build, or Buy" when evaluating new concepts to expand our home, lawn, and garden footprint.

Everyday you will:

• AI Exploration & Market Intelligence: Research and pilot cutting-edge AI tools to uncover potential corporate partners, conduct market forecasting, and deliver deep competitive intelligence.

• Strategic Advisory ("Partner vs. Build vs. Buy"): Formulate data-driven strategic recommendations for the Business Development and M&A teams based on AI insights and market analysis.

• Cross-Functional Shared Service: Operate as a centralized technical resource, providing technical insights to the M&A team (for due diligence) and the New Business Development team (for product enhancement).

• Team Leadership: Directly manage the AI Market Intelligence team, including Managers and Analysts focused on M&A, Strategic Planning, and Portfolio Enhancement.

• Daily Tool Utilization: Integrate advanced AI tools and automated workflows into daily strategic operations to maintain a high-velocity innovation pipeline.

• Key Collaborators: Cross-functional collaboration with the Directors of M&A and New Business Development. Participation in monthly "Sync-and-Accelerate" meetings.

To thrive in this role you must be:

Strategy & Business Leadership 

• Experience: 7–10+ years of progressive experience in Corporate Strategy, Management Consulting (e.g., McKinsey, BCG, Bain), Venture Capital, or Corporate Development/M&A.

• Framework Mastery: Proven track record of designing and executing "Partner, Build, or Buy" frameworks, market sizing (TAM/SAM), and commercial due diligence.

• People Management: 3+ years of experience directly managing and developing high-performing teams of analysts or strategic managers.

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Economics, Engineering, or a related field. An MBA or advanced degree is highly preferred.

Technical Execution & AI Proficiency

• Hands-on AI Experience: Demonstrated experience piloting and deploying LLM-powered solutions, custom GPTs, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) workflows to solve business problems.

• Data & Scripting Skills: Proficiency with Python or R for data analysis, market scraping, or API utilization (e.g., interacting with OpenAI, Anthropic, or Hugging Face APIs).

• The Tech Stack: Familiarity with modern data architectures, including vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Chroma), business intelligence tools (Tableau, PowerBI), and workflow automation platforms (e.g., Make, Zapier, LangChain).

• AI Literacy: Deep understanding of current AI capabilities, limitations (hallucinations, data privacy, security restrictions), and cost structures (token management).

The starting budgeted pay range for this role will generally fall between $175,700.00 - $206,700.00 per year. Scotts will consider various factors in determining the actual pay including your skills, qualifications, experience, and geographical location.In addition to the determined base salary, this role is also incentive eligible under our corporate bonus programs.For remote roles where the final candidate resides in Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Oregon or Washington, state required pay thresholds will be factored into base salary.

Here at ScottsMiracle-Gro, we believe providing an enriching and engaging employee experience is what sets us apart from other organizations. We recognize our employees are so much more than just their job title so we offer programs and benefits that support them in all aspects of their lives. Wondering how we do it? Below is a glimpse of our highlight reel…

• Our Live Total Health program provides you with options to align to your personal needs.  Selections range from medical, dental and vision coverage for you, your spouse/domestic partner and dependents to an outstanding wellness reimbursement program to an unbelievable 401K match (up to 7.5%) as well as a 15% discount on company stock and much more

• We know our talent is our most precious asset and your unique development contributes to our organization’s success now and in the future.  Career growth at our company is not always a ladder.  It’s much more like a rock climbing adventure.  Grow through exploration and experiences rather than a predictable linear path.

• We value the importance of family. We provide access to Maven Family Planning and up to $30,000 to accommodate for adoption, fertility and surrogacy.

• Be part of something bigger by joining one of our Employee Resource Groups focusing on diversity and inclusion, family, education and sustainability: Scotts Women’s Network, Scotts Black Employees’ Network, Scotts Veterans Network, Scotts Young Professionals, Scotts Pride Network (GroPride), Scotts Associates for a Greener Earth (SAGE), Scotts Family TREE and our Associate Boards.

• Join a company with a strong belief in giving back to the communities where we live and work.  We have a shared passion for service and volunteerism and believe participating in community service benefits our communities and strengthens our team. 

Not interested in this role? Stay up to date on future opportunities by joining our ScottsMiracle-Gro and Hawthorne Gardening talent communities.

Scotts is an EEO Employer, dedicated to a culturally diverse, drug free workplace.

EEO/AA Employer/Minority/Female/Disability/Veteran/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity

Notification to Agencies:

Please note that the Scotts Miracle-Gro company does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters or employment agencies. In the absence of a signed Master Service Agreement, and specific approval to submit resumes to an approved requisition, the Scotts Miracle-Gro company will not consider or approve payment regarding recruiter fees or referral compensations.